A beautiful lagoon

Hi dear friends, thank you for following my journey. Here is this week’s update.

We are anchored in a beautiful lagoon, surrounded on out North side by a stunning reef. On our Port bow are apartments built onto a structure protruding out into the sea. It will cost you between $1,000 and $2,000 per night to stay there!

Life Onboard:

It was really nice to be back at sea even though with a stiff breeze and an interesting sea developing we only needed 1 metre of the Genoa out (no mainsail) to maintain a speed of 6.5kn so to arrive at sunrise in Huahine.

We caught a nice 25lb Wahoo during our passage, within 15 minuets it was filleted and in the fridge, that was apart from two nice sized portioned which I cooked straight away, you cannot get fresher than that.

During the morning of our fist day their we met Seth of SV Heretic, a friend from our days spent in Colon (Panama). We invited them onboard to help us use some of the massive Wahoo I caught during our passage. Seasoned in jerk and wrapped in foil then cooked in it’s own juices in the oven for 25 minutes. Absolutely beautiful.

Upon our arrival in Bora Bora I anchored with the rest of the British fleet, around six vessels. We needed to use our Wahoo up so offered to cook it up for everyone; word spread and so did the food. We decided to have an evening onboard SV Reflections, Juliet & David. They cooked a nice curry, Beth & Bone (SV Splinter Apprentice), some rather nice Onion barges, Hazel & Steve (SV Oasis) a nice bean mix while I cooked jerky seasoned Wahoo in individual portions cooked in their own juices accompanied with herby roast potatoes.

We had so much food the curry was held over to the following night, where a repeat performance was held.

The Boat:

The new shroud worked fine during our 20 hour sail in 30 – 35kn true wind, that’s was around 25 – 27kn apparent wind to Huahine.

The engine water-cooling pump finally decided it wanted to stay in Tahiti Nui and travel no further with Pinta. After stripping it down this morning it became apparent the problem was terminal despite a run-around by the English fleet hear to find bearings and seals for me.

I have plumped in a spare water pump I had onboard as a replacement, I have wired it up to the ignition switch, then to a relay so it only runs when the engine runs. I have doubt at the back of my mind as to how long this will last, this I feel depends on how hot the water on the engine side of the pump gets for the connections are plastic. The only workaround I have is to continue running the pump for a few minutes once the engines has stopped so aid in cooling that side of the plumping down.

NEWS UPDATE, while working on Toney’s computer onboard SV Hullabaloo he mentioned he had a spare pump, to my surprise it turned out to be an exact same pump and almost brand new. This update was delayed for I wanted to fit the pump so Pinta was mobile again. The winds have been gusting through here and there is nothing worse than sitting at anchor in that without an engine.

‘Bone’ of SV Splinter’s Apprentice, an engineer by trade offered to service it, fitting new seals and marine grease in the process. Within an hour the pump was fitted and working. As mentioned, prior to that and without even asking, the word had got out about the broken pump and everybody in the fleet here was searching their lockers for parts for me, a truly moving experience.